As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Modern information handling systems include so-called cluster technology. Clustering is most widely recognized as the ability to combine multiple systems in such a way that they provide services a single system could not. Clustering is used to achieve higher availability, scalability and easier management. Higher Availability can be achieved by use of “failover” clusters, in which resources can automatically move between 2 or more nodes in the event of a failure. Scalability can be achieved by balancing the load of an application across several computer systems. Simpler management can be attained through the use of virtual servers, as opposed to managing each individual computer system. For example, a high availability clustering joins together two or more servers to help ensure against system failures including planned shutdowns (e.g., maintenance, backups) and unplanned outages (e.g., system failure, software failure, operator errors). The group of connected systems is known as a cluster. High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) combines multiple Symmetric Multi-Processor (SMP) computer systems together with high-speed interconnects to achieve the raw-computing power of classic “big-iron” supercomputers. These clusters work in tandem to complete a single request by dividing the work among the server nodes, reassemble the results and present them to the client as if a single-system did the work. The HPC clusters are used for solving the most challenging and rigorous engineering tasks facing the present era. The parallel applications running on HPC are both numeric and data intensive and require medium to high-end industry standard computing resources to fulfill today's computational needs. Since HPC has such a strong implementation, the demand for it is growing at a tremendous speed and is becoming highly popular in all aspects. Scalable Clusters provide the freedom of adding compute nodes in a cluster in order to increase the joint resources of processing. This can add to the power of computation since processors within a cluster can communicate data more efficiently and hence it also can reduce the average memory access time. This is particularly attractive when running parallel applications.
In modern information handling systems, such as Servers and Network Storage devices the Serial ATA standard will replace the current parallel ATA interface. Serial ATA (SATA) is a point-to-point connection and allows multiple ports to be aggregated into a single controller that is typically located either on the motherboard or as an add-in, RAID card. Through backplanes and external enclosures, Serial ATA will be deployed in high-capacity server and networked-storage environments such as the above described cluster systems. However, the SATA backplane interface connector is not as robust as the other connectors because its primary usage is designed for internal use within a computer system. External storage systems, in particular, for cluster systems have to use this type of connection when using SATA hard drives. Therefore, multiple connection disconnection operation might affect the reliabilty of the connection. Furthermore, the connector pins of SATA as currently defined do not allow for dual port support when the connector is installed directly on the backplane of a system. Therefore, failover and load balancing functionality cannot be implemented. These functions generally allow the control and access of one device by multiple controlling devices as mentioned above.